To Love a Best Friend
by LauraNeatO
Summary: A conversation between Trunks and Pan, several years after GT. What could have happened, how it could have been, and why Trunks will always be waiting for Pan. One-shot, TP


Disclaimer: I don't own Pan or Trunks, but I own all of GT, so in a way I _kinda _own them (but I never said that). © Akira Toriyama

_This is a conversation I wrote a while back that has just been collecting dust in my computer. It's a one-shot conversation between Trunks and Pan._

_This scene is not a clip or in any way related to my other story. I'm releasing it because I have no intention of using it in a story and I figured it was too good to just keep confined to my laptop._

_This is meant to take place after GT._

_Enjoy!_

To Love a Best Friend

Trunks and Pan were sitting on a cliff, overlooking the ocean. Several years had passed since the Shadow Dragons were defeated and Goku vanished with the dragonballs. Over the years, the Briefs and Son family had slowly drifted apart except for one particular friendship that nothing could seem to break.

Ever since grand tour and all the trials that followed it, Pan and Trunks had remained close friends. Trunks was getting older, and showed no interest in dating women, while Pan was still single, having spent her past years concentrating on college studies, intent on following her father into the sciences.

To celebrate her graduation from Orange Star University, Trunks decided to take her to the ocean, and there, after enjoying a nice picnic lunch, they both sat on a cliff, staring out at the vast sea before them, listening to the crashing waves below as they both sat silently, each perceiving their own thoughts.

Stray hairs flew in the sea breeze, and Pan brushed them back with her fingers, watching the waves as they collected and danced below. The silence between them was heavy and slightly uncomfortable. Pan looked up to see Trunks staring blankly at the waters, his face relaxed and showing traces of worry, something he developed from his mother years ago and increased over the years as he had to endure a stressful job he always promised himself he would retire from whenever it was convenient for his family. But that time never seemed to come, and most of his life, he lived to please other people. Pan already knew that Trunks could only truly open up to her. They were best friends in every way, and a lot of the time, he could vent his problems to her and she would always listen.

As she looked at his face, she saw his own hair blow in the breeze, and for a striking moment, realized that he was beautiful. It never really crossed her mind before, when she looked at him, to admire his face. She already knew that Bulma was breathtaking in her youth, but to think that she passed her beauty to her son was beyond Pan. He was always the shoulder she could cry on, the laugh she could always evoke, and the company she could cherish at any moment of any day, even if he were just in her thoughts.

As she sat there and looked at him, she realized she loved him. It was not an epiphany or anything of the sort. She had loved him for a long time, but every once in a while, when he smiled at her, she would realize it all over again and a surge of emotions would flutter her heart.

It was really hard to imagine how he could still be single, if he had the ability to sweep girls off their feet by a smile or a blush, or sometimes even a mere glance. He had an enormous charisma, and Pan often found herself fighting emotions she feared would only get her nowhere, or complicate matters. It was enough to enjoy him as her best friend, as it was.

The silence began to make her edgy and she followed Trunks' gaze to the ocean, and then looked down to her hands as they rested on her knees. After a moment, Pan looked at the waters again, and decided to break the silence.

"So, Trunks…." Pan turned her face to him, "How is it that you aren't married yet?"

Trunks seemed to be broken from a thought as he turned to look at her with blinking eyes, "What? Married?" His eyes betrayed some inner thought he was trying to hold at bay, "Why do you ask?"

"It's just that you seem to have everything going in your life, except you haven't settled down yet."

Blinking again, Trunks just looked at her a moment before tilting his head slightly, "Well, uh, do you want the real reason or the version I tell people?"

Pan cracked a smile as she watched him and then shrugged her shoulders slightly, "Well, whichever you feel more comfortable telling."

Trunks smiled and leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees as he looked out to the ocean, "I tell people I'm waiting to find the perfect woman."

Pan raised her eyebrow a bit, "And that's supposed to be a lie?"

"Well, in a way, I guess a little." He let out a half chuckle and turned his face to her, "I really have no intentions of ever falling in love the way they do in movies."

Pan laughed slightly and grinned, "You don't? You might have a hard time finding a serious girlfriend that way."

"No, no… I guess I put it wrong." Trunks leaned back and looked up to the sky, "I guess, I meant to say that I…" He looked to her again with his gaze beyond her face, "I don't believe in falling-head-over-heels love with a person you barely know." His vision centered on her for a moment, and he blinked, realizing he said something that would need a bit more explanation, "I mean…" He looked beyond her again and then turned to the ocean, "I know the feeling exists, and that a lot of people experience it. But that feeling never lasts. People convince themselves that they are in love, and are so in love with the _idea_ that they are in love, they make all kinds of rash decisions without thinking."

Pan leaned forward, raising her eyebrows a little as she frowned, "But what's wrong with feeling that way? You sound like you are purposely trying to avoid it or something?"

Trunks shook his head, "No, I'm not trying to avoid it. I'm just saying that being 'in love' versus loving someone, is a false emotion."

A moment of silence passed between them as they both watched the waves crash on the shore below them. The wind continued to breathe silently past their hair.

Pan turned to Trunks and said hesitantly, as if unsure if she wanted to hear the answer, "Have you ever been in love before?"

A pause drifted on the air as Trunks looked away, "Yeah, a few times…" He shook his head, with a small huff and a nostalgic grin, "They all date to my college years, though. I haven't seriously had a girlfriend since then. I've just been too busy."

Pan clutched the grass below her and felt her brows knot down, "Then how can you say it isn't a real emotion? You've even experienced it yourself!"

Trunks turned to look at her, and stared long and hard into her eyes. After a moment, his face relaxed and his vision settled on her shoulders and then wandered down to her hands before looking her in the eyes again.

"Pan…" Trunks frowned slightly as he looked at her, "If people don't truly _know_ each other to begin with, it doesn't last. People lust for each other, tell each other secrets and fantasies, buy presents, make poems and love songs to channel their infatuation through something, but so many people, when they snap out of it, realize that the person they are with _isn't_ really _the one_ for them." He leaned back on an elbow and continued to look at her, "It's easy to say 'I want to live with you for the rest of my life,' but when you actually have to live it, well…. People find it is harder than they imagined."

She felt her hands clasp together as if she were trying to hold back slight frustration, "So the _real _reason you aren't married is that you have no intentions of living your life with one person forever?" She frowned at him and shook her head, "Wow, Trunks, I thought you were different than that."

Something about what she said seemed to trigger a laughing fit from Trunks. He fell to the ground and clutched his stomach as he grinned widely up at the sky, "No, no, don't get me wrong!" He turned his face to her, with a grin still plastered on his face, "I _do_ want to get married and have children, but I don't believe I need to fall _head over heels _in order to find the right woman."

Pan huffed slightly and continued her frown, "Then how _will_ you find her, Mr. Know-It-All?"

Still smiling Trunks sat up and gestured slightly with his hands, "Listen…" He smiled, "Love can fade or be broken apart. People that base their relationships on love will find they never really had a solid foundation to their relationship to begin with." Trunks' smile faded slightly as he took on a more pensive look, and then began to gaze out at the ocean again.

The breeze picked up slightly as Trunks' eyes fluttered slightly as if he were struggling to make out his next words. Pan just sat there, looking at face, realizing for the second time that day, how much he meant to her.

Trunks still stared at the waters as he brought his hands to his knees, "I intend to marry my best friend." Another pause emerged as his eyes wandered to hers and he twisted his body somewhat so he could face her and look her in the eye as he said his next few thoughts. "I want someone I can completely connect with to help raise my children, to go the park, to go to baseball games, to argue with and not have to worry about holding back because I'm afraid she'd stop loving me."

Trunks' gaze wandered down to Pan's hand again, "If I marry my best friend, I can be myself from the start. She'd know exactly what she'd be getting into by marrying me."

Pan raised her eyebrows slightly, "She might have a problem with you not loving her, though."

His face became dead serious as his eyes pierced her own, "Pan, if someone is able to be my best friend, to know me better than I even know myself, and if I'm able to trust her with my life and the lives of my children, how can you even _begin_ to believe that I would not love her?"

Pan looked down to her hands as she tried her hardest to keep her emotions at bay. "You might have a hard time finding just _any_ girl to be best friends with, though." She shrugged, "It's not like you can go to the mall and pick one up at the local department store. You have to really work hard to earn complete trust, and you'd be taking a really big risk of being disappointed after spending all that time trying to get close to her without actually falling in love."

Trunks chuckled slightly and gently took her hand, causing her to face him with eyes betraying her surprise. He smiled slightly while gazing at her and paused slightly as his eyebrows quivered and his breathing began to quicken a pace, "Just because I can't imagine myself falling in love the way they do in movies, it does not mean I can't love someone."

Pan felt her eyes widen as she became aware of the look that Trunks was giving her. It was as if one of those giant waves came crashing down on her as she realized what was really going on, "Are…Are you…. Are you talking about _me?_"

Trunks chuckled, "Of course I am. I've been talking about you this whole time."

"But… but …!" Pan could feel her cheeks flush as her heart began to race, "Why… why are you saying this now?"

He smiled, "You asked me why I wasn't married yet, and I didn't want to lie to you." He nodded, "I tell people that I'm waiting for the right woman, which is only partly true." He paused as he looked in her eyes, "The _real_ reason… is because I'm waiting for _you._"

She felt herself gasp and clutched her heart as her head began to feel faint, "Trunks…"

"But don't get me wrong." He put up a hand to halt her in her thoughts and then shook his head, "I'm not proposing to you right now." He paused and then turned his gaze back to the sea, "I want you to go out and date other people to gain experience." He breathed deeply, "Although I've had many years of getting to know what other kinds of people existed out there in this world, from what I've understood, you haven't had any boyfriends before."

"But–!!"

Trunks smiled, "I'll be your best friend, no matter what. And, I want you to be able to tell me anything." He turned to face her, his eyes rock hard and determined, "But if you tell me that you don't want to date other people, we're going to have to have a long talk."

Pan felt her breaths quicken as her heart pounded inside of her. "How can you be doing this? You just told me that you _love_ me, and now you're saying I have to go date _other_ people?!"

Trunks smiled, "I also told you that I'm not head-over-heels infatuated with you." Trunks' smile turned into a sad grin, his eyes somewhat pleading for her to understand. He took her hand and looked her in the eyes again, "You're my best friend. I'm not jealous at all, in any way. When you are ready for a commitment with me, I'll be waiting. There is no one else I want to spend the rest of my life with, but I want to make sure that you feel the exact same way."

Pan looked away, heartbroken and trying her best to swallow her pride.

Trunks clasped her hand and continued to give his sad smile, "You aren't in a rush, Pan. We have another hundred years or so to our lives." He frowned slightly and tilted his head, "Pan? Pan, look at me."

Pan turned her face to him, hiding her disappointment as she held her breath, hoping tears would not form.

"I want you to be sure, Pan." Trunks smiled brighter at her and squeezed her hand gently, "And when you're ready, just know I'll be here waiting for you." He smiled brightly, "Always."

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-_1/22/05_-


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